Pope celebrates consecrated life

(Feb.03,2010): “Catholics enter religious orders, or consecrate themselves as virgins because the love of God is so great that it is worth giving up everything for Him,” Pope Benedict XVI told thousands of priests and nuns on Tuesday, during an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica on the Feast day of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. As the Church also celebrates the World Day of the Consecrated on this same day, Pope Benedict told men and women religious that they are witnesses for others of the realness of God's love and mercy. The Pope told the religious that each one of them had drawn near to Christ, as the source of pure and faithful love; a love so great and beautiful, that it deserves everything and more, because an entire life would not be enough to repay that which Christ is, and has done for us.
Beyond the thousand things religious do in the church and in the world, Pope Benedict, said consecrated life is important, precisely as a sign of selflessness and love. The Pope said consecrated people are especially called to bear witness to the Lord’s mercy, in which men find their salvation. They keep alive the experience of God’s forgiveness because they are aware that they have been saved. They feel renewed and wrapped up in the mantle of God’s holiness when they acknowledge their own sin. The closer we get to God, the more we are useful to others, said the Pope. Consecrated men and women, he stressed experience God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness not only for themselves but also for their brothers and sisters, since they are called to bear in their heart and in their prayers humankind’s distress, especially for those who are far from God.
The Pope offered special encouragement to religious, who feel the weight of never being thanked, those who are aged or infirm and those experiencing difficulties.